1915.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 187 



to Toxicophis pugnox B. and G. is carried even closer in several. 

 In No. 6,210 with 7-8 supralabials the triangular point of the second 

 labial has been forced just above the labial border on the right side 

 and on the left side just reaches it; in Nos. 6,213 on the left side 

 and 6,133 on the right side it enters the labial border, while in No. 

 6,129 the point is just excluded from the border. The infralabials 

 range from 10-11, the latter number predominating. Besides the 

 inferior loreal, this species occasionally has another loreal in front 

 of the pit, as in the copperhead, and the absence of this plate is not so 

 constant for A. piscivorus as it might be thought. In No. 6,215 

 it appears on both sides cut off from supralabial No. 2; in No. 6,127 

 it appears on the left side; in Nos. 6,130 and 6,132 it is on the right 

 side. Thus, in five of the sixteen this distinguishing character 

 between A. contortrix and A. piscivorus appears in the latter. The 

 temporals may be 2-2, 3-3, 4:-A, 4-5, 5-4, 6-4, 6-5. The oculars 

 are usually 2-3, though 2-2, 2-4, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4 and 4-3 also occur. 



Habits. — The "moccasin" is the Crotaline snake of the swamp. 

 It frequents the thickety edges of the cypress ponds on the islands, 

 occurs around the wooded edges of the water stretches and where 

 the woods of the island's border meet the piney woods, also along 

 th€ water-courses and quite generally through the swamp. On the 

 prairies they are not so common as in the wet, woody parts. They 

 lie on the little hummocks above the water and slide in at one's 

 approach. The Okefinokee Swamp is no place for the collector 

 wdio has been reared in harmless snake country where the method 

 of capture is to step on your prey. One of the authors instinctively 

 tried it on a supposed T. taxispilotus, and fortunately just missed 

 one of the biggest of the sixteen moccasins captured. They are 

 rather sluggish, yet those who know poisonous snakes handle them 

 very carefully. In spite of the presence of so many moccasins, the 

 children go barefoot. On the hunting trips for bear and deer the 

 men of the Lee family frequently travel all day barefoot, and Mr. 

 Bryant Lee has twice been bitten in the large toe by a moccasin. 

 In such cases, usually the dogs which are ahead avoid the snake, but 

 the hunters immediately behind step on them. In both of these 

 injuries the patient's leg and part of his side swelled to twice their 

 normal proportions. He recovered from both experiences. These 

 simple people could find no cure for it and in the second case thought 

 some ''Cuban relief" efficacious. We suspect the ingredients of 

 this nostrum to be alcohol, although we are not positive of it. The 

 presence of such creatures as alligators, alligator snappers and 



